Foundation News

Family Spaces
Stella Kalaw
January 8 - February, 2009
Opening reception on January 8, Thursday, 6pm

Silverlens Gallery welcomes 2009 with a photography show by United States based artist Stella Kalaw. Over the last fifty years, the Filipino diaspora has altered the landscape of families and the relationships that bind. Kalaw, having left the Philippines over ten years ago, returns to show Family Spaces, a series of photographs of her immediate family members’ homes all over the world. Continents apart, each home is a glimpse of interconnectedness through objects of the everyday Filipino. Worn tsinelas on a stair landing, a tabo floating in a balde, the Sacred Heart of Jesus–all markers of Pinoy identity, they are umbilical cords to the familiar. The color photographs present cultural identity through markers that belong to one extended family, but stand in for any Filipino family anywhere in the world.

Stella Kalaw (b. 1969 in Manila) graduated with a degree in Professional Photography from the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, under a Fuji Scholarship and worked as an intern in Irving Penn’s Studio in New York City shortly after. Kalaw has been part of group shows in Washington, New York, California and at the Ayala Museum in Manila. Her works have garnered awards such as a Honorable Mention in the Polaroid International Awards and the Gold Prize in American Photo Magazine’s New Views Awards.

Family Spaces by Stella Kalaw opens at 6pm on January 8, Thursday and runs until February 7, 2009. There will be an Artist Talk by Stella Kalaw on January 10, Saturday, from 3-5pm. Family Spaces will be shown along with Library Bookworks by Renato Orara at SLab (Silverlens Lab).

Silverlens Gallery is at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816-0044, 0905-2650873, manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am–7pm and Saturdays 1–6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com.

Image:
Stella Kalaw
First Lamp at Somerville, 2007

Bea Valdes
Bedtime Stories
November 28, 2008 to January 3, 2009
Opening reception on November 28
Friday, 6PM

Designer Bea Valdes presents Bedtime Stories, an exhibit of sculptures of animals adorned with crystals and semi-precious stones. Inspired by fairy tales, these whimsical creatures bring us into a darkened landscape where the sinister lurk with the enchanted. Fable and folklore, as we find all throughout the history of oral literature, were often embellished with exaggerated or gruesome details as stories were passed on from one person to the next. Women, who sat in groups as they worked on tasks such as knitting and spinning, often recounted such tales of gore.

Valdes, a graduate of the University of the Philippines and the Inchbald School in London, is a much awarded and published designer often seen on the pages of Vogue, W and Harpers. Known to be a staunch supporter of local artisans and their craft, Valdes received the Katha Award for Creative Excellence in Accessory Design in 2006.

Bedtime Stories by Bea Valdes runs from November 28, 2008 to January 3, 2009 at SLab. The artist will be present at the opening on Friday, Nov.28, 6-9 pm.

Visit SLab at 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. For more information, call 8160044/ 09052650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or visit www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

Image:
Bea Valdes
Fawn, 2008
Photo by Rachel Rillo

Alliance Française de Manille
and
Museum Foundation of the Philippines

Presents

Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi “PERIGORD STILL LIFE”

Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, painter and printmaker, comes once again on her annual pilgrimage to her homeland with an offering of some twenty or so still life paintings on exhibit at the Alliance Française de Manille starting November 6.

This new body of works reveals an evolution of Gelvezon-Tequi’s colours from the bright tropical hues of her past paintings to more subtle chromaticisms of grey, green and yellow. The subject matter, late summer gourds and old provincial pottery, suggests a glimpse of the world where Gelvezon-Tequi now lives.

Having always inhabited big cities, it was an apprehension for her to move - upon her husband Marc’s early retirement - to live in Limeuil, a small village of 350 souls in the heart of the Perigord region. The Perigord, in the Southwest part of France, is known for its “foei gras” and truffles, its thousand chateaux, its decorated prehistoric caves. But with her strong spirit and usual vivacity Gelvezon-Tequi tackled with enthusiasm this different lifestyle and learned to love country living. The artist drew inspiration from the old objects around her - a kitchen table that had seen generations of use, chipped ceramic pots and pitchers that contained long gone walnut oil and duck confit, colourful gourds harvested at the start of autumn. She composed numerous variations of her subject matter that gently ask us to reflect on memory and time.

The exhibit is until November 28 at the Alliance Française Total Gallery, 209 Nicanor Garcia Street (formerly Reposo), Bel Air 2, Makati. The artist’s reception shall be on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery. Cocktails will be served at 6:30 pm.

Gelvezon-Tequi has accepted the invitation of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines (MFP) to give an Artist’s Talk on her life and art in the Perigord at its Fellowship gathering for members and other interested guests, at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at the same venue.

Admission Fees
Members: P100.00
Non-members: P150.00
Students: P50.00

Rene Barbier wine will be served.
(Sponsored by: ADP Industries Corporation)

For more details about the artist’s talk and for confirmation of attendance, kindly contact Elvie Magpayo of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines at Telefax no.: 404-2685, mobile no.: 0928-503-9392 or email add: elvie.magpayo@gmail.com or call 810-6912 and look for Ms. Tonie Bautista, or call at 722-9073 and look for Flor Cortez.

Art in the Park features original paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures by promising art students and established visual artists.

Art after Dark is a relaxed evening affair featuring 6 interactive art spaces highlighting one-of-a-kind or specially selected pieces from different artists and art groups.

The Museum Foundation of the Philippines creates an exciting event for first-time buyers and experienced collectors to purchase original contemporary art by up-coming and celebrated artists.  For the first time in its three years, Art in the Park will extend until evening but only after transforming into six interactive art spaces.  Allow yourself to be wooed by an equally impressive line-up of artists and art groups showcasing one-of-a-kind pieces.

LOCATION:

Velasquez Park, Valero St.,
Salcedo Village, Makati City

FAIR HOURS:

June 28, 2008
Art in the Park:  8am – 2pm
Art after Dark:   5pm – 10pm

Painter Carlo Angelo Saavedra calls his new works “imperfect objects”. Outwardly true; the treatment of the paintings is far from standard, e.g. frames, hacked with a dull axe,  smeared in paint overflowing the canvas limits, suggested figures emerging from a coat of mud-like mixtures, surfaces abused with the constant process of trial and error.

However, beneath the seeming imperfection of his works, Saavedra holds that his aim is not to deconstruct or to deface. According to the artist, it is quite the opposite. With salvaged pieces of wood and old paintings, Saavedra says that by giving these found objects or subject matters new identities, one still engages in the process of creation. “I’m never iconoclastic”, he says. “The job of a painter is to make a memorable painting, not to vandalize for the sake of temporary provocation.”

And despite a number of people always commenting that his paintings never veer away from the macabre, Saavedra insists that he is above all, optimistic. Inspired by poetry and, what e.e. cummings describes as a fascination with the verb and the movement it creates in language, Saavedra also points out his fascination with the synthetic quality of poetry and how within this idea there resonates something autobiographical.

Quite often these random phrases when taken alone, only conjure a generic event. But, in his idyllic world, Saavedra shows lying beneath the irregularity and the ambiguity of it all, the simple idea that the creator can own the generic and turn it into something personal.

Seemingly, on the walls of the gallery are discarded “relics” which seem fueled by that unexplained angst that people always see in Saavedra’s works. Contrary to that, his works are in fact merely products of his preoccupation with doing things his way - not with a deep irreverence or over conceptualization of art, but with a solitary need to develop a positive autobiographical inspiration, combined with something philosopher Alan Watts described as, “a sense of material competence” needed “to do the fundamental things in life.”

Homemade Relics opens on the 6th of May at Artinformal, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City. The exhibit will run until the 20th. For inquiries, call 7258518 or sms 0918-899-2698.